The new research raises a host of concerns about loss of productivity, privacy, and security, experts say.

Canadians are Twittering away at the office, according to a computer network security firm that analyses traffic patterns over the Internet.

We’re also big on YouTube, Facebook, instant messaging, Gmail, dating applications, and a file-sharing app from China that is notorious for spreading nasty computer viruses.

California-based Palo Alto Networks collected six-months worth of network data at 34 big Canadian companies with hundreds of thousands of workers across the country.

The result suggests that when employees spend the day clicking away in front of their computer screens in their offices and cubicles, it’s not all business — it’s personal, too.

That raises a host of concerns about loss of productivity, privacy, and security, experts say.

“People who like to do nasty things on the Internet are getting better at using social media tools and applications as a way of spreading malicious software,” said Joe Compeau, an expert on information systems at the Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario.

In 2007, the Ontario government instituted a ban on employees using Facebook and YouTube in the workplace, calling it a time-waster.

Mike Haro, director of corporate communications for Palo Alto Networks, confirmed that government agencies were included in the pool of Canadian data, but declined to give more details.

“We cannot comment on any specific organization, however I can say that our global research shows that 53 per cent of organizations 'believed' they had Facebook blocked while our hard data reveals that Facebook usage within those same networks is above 90 per cent,” Haro said.

Palo Alto Networks specializes in what it calls next-generation firewalls. It collects data with its customers’ permission, but does not identify individual users.

Every six months it issues a report showing where corporate Internet users spend their time. The latest study covered 760 companies in 70 countries.

This is the first time the IT firm has broken out data for Canada.

The rampant use of Twitter came as a surprise. “We have not found a single enterprise in Canada where Twitter is not being used,” René Bonvanie, vice president of worldwide marketing at Palo Alto Networks said in an interview.

“If it were just one or two marketing people using Twitter, the traffic would be in megabytes. The traffic is in gigabytes. It’s hundreds of people.”

Facebook and YouTube were in heavy use at 31 of the Canadian companies studied. The latter sucked up 6 per cent of available bandwidth.

Most workers use Gmail for personal email, the company found.

When it comes to IM, Canada is the only country where Meebo, a browser-based instant messaging platform, came out on top, beating out Facebook Chat.

“That tells me that Canadians are smart. People have figured out that most companies block traditional IMs but haven’t figured out how to block browser-based IMs,” Bonvanie said.

Workers in about one-third of the firms use Spark, an online dating application.

Peer-to-peer file sharing program BitTorrent is being used in three-quarters of the companies studied. But the real surprise was the use of XUnlei, in more than one-third of firms.

Canada is the only country aside from China where XUnlei ranks in the top three, Bonvanie said, adding that it has “a notoriously bad” reputation for spreading malicious software.

“Malware can install itself on the users desktop or laptop and start to send out information about the user, their data. It could potentially be a huge loss of confidential information,” Bonvanie said.

But the picture isn’t all bad, professor Compeau said. Academic research shows that employees that use social media tend to be more creative, innovative and can be more productive in the longer term.

“If you take away the tools, I don’t think you take away the ability to waste time at work. We’re still social. We want to interact with people,” Compeau said.

“There’s another way to look at this: ‘If you expect me to check my work email in the evenings and on weekend, why can’t I update my dating profile at the office?’ ”

Companies are better off educating employees about acceptable use rather than instituting bans, he added.

“Every policy you put in place, it won’t take your employees long to find a way around it,” Compeau said. “If you tell me I can’t check Facebook, I’ll find another way to check Facebook.”

Surfing at work

34: Canadian companies studied

88%: Number of Canadian companies where employees used IM

91%: Number Canadian companies where employees used web-based email

Twitter: Favourite social networking application

351: U.S. companies studied

97%: Used IM

100%: Use of web-based email

Facebook: Favourite social networking application

Source: Palo Alto Networks

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